Manager Don Mattingly, Dodgers reportedly agree on new deal

Don Mattingly’s status as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers has been a topic of speculation and debate for more than a year.

Before last season, the team declined to guarantee his 2014 option — though that option automatically vested when the Dodgers reached the 2013 National League Championship Series.

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According to multiple media reports, Mattingly and the Dodgers have agreed on a three-year contract that will keep him with the franchise through the 2016 season.

Mattingly, 52, has a 260-225 record in three years since taking over for Joe Torre as manager.

At a news conference Oct. 21, Mattingly expressed his opinion about lacking a long-term contract.

“It puts me in a spot where everything I do is questioned because I’m basically trying out, auditioning to say, ‘Can you manage a team or not manage?’ ” he told media. “It’s a tough spot. To me, it gets to that point where three years in, you either know or you don’t.”

Hall vote is revealed Wednesday

Pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, who were Atlanta Braves teammates, are expected to be first-ballot Hall of Fame selections when the vote is revealed Wednesday.

Slugger Frank Thomas, who spent most of his career with the Chicago White Sox, also was on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot for the first time. A player needs to get 75 percent of the vote to be elected to the Hall, which is in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Former Houston standout Craig Biggio, who played most of his games at second base, led last year’s voting with 68.2 percent in his first try and is viewed as a serious candidate to make the Hall this time or down the line.

Three managers — Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Torre — are assured of being in the Class of 2014, as they were selected by the Expansion Era Committee last month.

Boxing

Holyfield makes anti-gay comments on reality-TV show

Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield has been reprimanded by the bosses of British reality-television show “Celebrity Big Brother” for saying being gay “ain’t normal.”

The 50-year-old American compared being gay to being born with a deformed leg, saying “you go to a doctor and get it fixed back right.”

Motor sports

Schumacher’s wife asks media to leave family, doctors alone

Michael Schumacher’s wife said the retired driver’s family wants to be left in peace as doctors treat him after a Dec. 29 skiing accident in the French Alps. The seven-time Formula One champion has been in a medically induced coma.

Corinna Schumacher, in a statement, said: “It’s very important to me that you ease the burden on the doctors and the hospital so that they can do their work in peace.”

She asked the international media who have gathered at the hospital in Grenoble to leave and added, “Please also leave our family alone.”

Roma has lead in Dakar Rally

Nani Roma of Spain, driving a Mini, won the third stage of the Dakar Rally in Argentina, which gave him the overall lead in the car division.

In motorbikes, Joan Barreda Bort of Spain has the overall lead.

Soccer

Man U suffers 3rd loss in a row

In England, Manchester United slumped to a third consecutive loss for the first time in 13 years when Sunderland added to manager David Moyes’ troubles by winning the first leg of their League Cup semifinal 2-1.

ELSEWHERE

• Nancy Kerrigan will work for NBC during the Sochi Olympics, 20 years after she was the story of the 1994 Games because of the figure-skating rivalry with Tonya Harding that turned violent.

• Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach who is serving 30 to 60 years for sexually abusing 10 boys, is appealing Pennsylvania’s decision to strip him of his $4,900 monthly pension.

• Miami Heat guard Ray Allen, who played the role of Jesus Shuttlesworth in the 1998 movie “He Got Game,” said he and filmmaker Spike Lee have spent time over the last couple of months discussing a sequel.